Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 73556 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73556 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
“Oh, no ma’am. No thank you. That door is closed and locked. Nix that entire text message conversation I sent to you the other day. I’m not going out like that.” Genesis waved her hands dramatically.
“Why?!” Rosie had the audacity to look mortally wounded.
“If you think I’m about to walk into the line of fire of your firing squad, you’ve got another thing comin’. You’re on an anti-man campaign right now because Rico has not stopped makin’ your life a living hell, and I get it, but I’d be a fool to think a conversation regarding my love life at this moment will go anywhere but in your big trash bin of negativity.”
“Let me tell you somethin, Gen.” Rosie’s voice dropped low, as if she were about to go in.
Made no difference to Genesis. The truth was the truth.
“Tell it to me, tell it to me twice,” Genesis said with a smile as she neatly placed her napkin over her lap.
“I can’t help that as your best friend, I’m protective of you.” Rosie placed her hand across her chest, fingers sprawled, proudly displaying her short French manicure. “All of these years you’ve told me things, and I’ve told you things. Sharing was caring.”
“Mmm hmm,” Genesis bit into a soft, buttery roll she’d grabbed from a basket on the table. It practically melted in her mouth. “Go on.”
“When someone fucks you over, they are dead to me. I don’t care that you’ve forgiven them. I haven’t. And I won’t.”
“Do you solemnly swear?”
“I’m protective of mine. I solemnly swear to not give a single fuck or lose an ounce of sleep over my decision to believe that when someone shows you who they are, you better believe them. Tony, your sexy ass brother, for instance, deserves better. Your sister-in-law, Penny, said you were a Know-It-All, just because you corrected her on pronouncing sushi incorrectly. You did it nicely, too, and she still copped an attitude. She then said that’s why you didn’t have no man. She’s dead to me.”
“Okay, well, we can stop right there because—”
“Naw! Let me cook!” Rosie began counting off her fingers. “Your granny Pearle said you were going to end up alone with fifty cats. Meanwhile, Granny Pearle’s husband cheated on her a million and one times, gave her an STI that thankfully some penicillin cured, and had a whole ’nother family across town.”
“I shouldn’t have told you my families’ business, and especially nothin’ about my step-grandfather, I see. That marriage was short-lived.”
“Yeah, because he died!”
“He’s dead and we’re fine. Nobody liked him anyway.”
“Don’t make excuses for it now. It is what it is. I also happen to like cats. Granny Pearle is dead to me because of how she slick-talked you, like her life as a young woman was better.”
“I understand what you’re saying, but you have to cut her some slack. She’s from an older generation, Rosie, where women put up—”
“I don’t give a damn about her generational curses, experiences, rules and expectations or respecting the elderly. If the elderly are discourteous, their damn selves, they can get this work, too! From age one to one hundred, ain’t nobody ’bout to gaslight me. Folks using their age as an excuse to be vocally combative, emotionally abusive, nasty-nice, and ungodly. Hmph! Bags of bones shufflin’ ’round here throwin’ verbal grenades like gang signs, but we can’t say shit back, or defend ourselves from their antics. Fuck that and the horse drawn Little House on the Prairie wagon they rolled in on. Not all of ’em got dementia. Some of them know full well what they’re doing.”
“You’re a disrespectful wench.” Genesis giggled.
“If you find my words disrespectful, Genesis, that’s unfortunate. The truth is the truth.”
“Oh, I know that, sis, but all I’m saying is that I don’t let nobody turn me ugly unless I’m provoked, and some shit just ain’t worth the time and effort. Sometimes it is worth addressing, but you have to bide your time.”
“You’re definitely a patient plotter,” Rosie chuckled. “Don’t get it twisted though. I can dish it as well as I can take it, but the hell with Granny Pearle, her chicken grease-stained moo-moos, her warped, ‘We’re happy to be on the plantation, Mastuh,’ thinkin’, and the hell with her cat hatred, and male worshipping ways, too.”
Genesis’ stomach rumbled with mirth.
“You went entirely too far. How are you going to talk about my grandmama like that?”
But everything Rosie said was true. The woman ignored her half-hearted question.
“And here’s another one. Your old work friend, Tasha, was talking shit behind your back. Said you were weird, amongst other things.”
“Rosie, that was a long time ago. I don’t give a crap about Tasha’s opinion of me anyway. Then or now. She can shove her opinion where the sun don’t shine far as I’m concerned.”
“I know you don’t care about her or her judgment, but you were nothin’ but nice to her, and she still acted a fool! That’s the point I’m trying to make. I told you that girl wasn’t worth a dime.”